The NSW Industrial Relations Commission has approved a "splinter award" to protect thousands of local government workers who are unable to perform their usual roles during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The FWC, in contrasting redundancy decisions delivered on the same day, has agreed to slash the payment a small, pandemic-affected business must make to a worker, but has rejected another employer's bid to do the same for three of its former employees.
An FWU conference convened this afternoon to consider granting paid pandemic leave to vulnerable workers heard that the ACTU has asked Comcare and state-based workcover schemes to declare COVID-19 an occupational disease within the health industry.
The ACTU says that a trading halt on Virgin Australia shares underlines the need for an urgent Federal Government package to support the aviation industry.
The Opposition and legal experts have questioned why the JobKeeper rules appear to leave out the "one in, all in" requirement spelt out in their explanatory statement, and have canvassed what it might mean for employers wanting to negotiate trade-offs.
The ACCC has granted urgent interim authorisation to enable life insurers to co-ordinate to ensure a broad range of frontline healthcare workers are not excluded from coverage due to potential or actual exposure to COVID-19.
The IR system will need to change to deal with challenges arising from the COVID-19 "new normal" of working from home, according to a briefing paper by the Centre for Future Work.
The FWC will consider an ACTU push for frontline health workers to have access to paid leave on multiple occasions if they are required to self-isolate due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
